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Aug 5, 2004
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The SS Great Eastern
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Issue:
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August 2004
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Author:
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KE Heaton
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In 1851, an idea came to the brilliant engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel to build a great ocean liner to be called the SS Leviathan. In 1854 the construction of this mammoth ship was underway.
She was intended to be a cargo and passenger ship for a route between England and Australia. Her size was to allow her to travel the whole trip without refuelling along the way.
At completion, the SS Leviathan was five times larger than any other ship of her time.
She boasted three methods of propulsion due to an innovative designer. She was steam powered with two oscillating engines. One was 3400hp that drove the conventional paddlewheels and the other was 4900hp and turned the single propeller at her stern. She also had 10 boilers that were fed by 100 coal furnaces, and was capable of travelling the long distances without refuelling. Lastly she carried over 1600 square meters of sail. But of course the sails could not be used with the engines due to the risk of sparks catching the sails on fire. She had a top speed of 13.5 knots and a capacity to carry nearly 3000 passengers.
In a stroke of engineer brilliance, Brunel built this ship out of iron and gave her a double bottom and sides with nearly 1 meter in between them. She had twelve watertight compartments. This of course made a rather large and heavy ship weighing in at about 22,500 tons. This design helped in the accident when she tore an 80-foot gash in her side. Her design helped the hull of the ship to withstand the water pressure. By comparison, the Titanic was sunk by a gash a fraction of the size.
At 689 feet, this monster of her time was built so long to fight off rolling in the waves, but actually became well known for her ability to cause seasickness.
On her first launch attempt she was put into the water sideways due to her size. But she only moved a few feet and stopped. After a few failed attempts and small on board accidents, the ship was finally launched in January of 1858.
But by this point her expenses were too high and her owners could no longer afford to complete her. After sitting idle for about a year, the Leviathan was sold to the Great Ship Company who renamed her the SS Great Eastern. They completed the ship and along with it some minor repairs from a boiler explosion on board.
This explosion was considered part of the reason the engineer Brunel died. A few days before her sea trials he had suffered a stroke. It is said that when he heard about the explosion on board he suffered another, which caused his death.
Now destined to travel across the Atlantic from Britain to North America, she set off on her first voyage to New York in 1860 carrying only 38 passengers, amount them the famous French novelist Jules Vern. This new wonder was definitely a disappointment. To make more money she was opened to the public for viewing. Two-day voyages were badly planned when at the first an unexpected 2000 passengers showed up. As they had only planned for 200, the ship was vastly unprepared. The second trip attracted only about 100 passengers, further diminishing her image.
Unfortunately this gigantic floating vessel did not gain any sort of popularity and rarely had more than a couple hundred passengers aboard her. She was converted to a troop carrier and lived successfully for a short time in this job.
The start of the successful stretch of her career was in August of 1863 when she was converted to a cable laying ship. After a failed attempt, she successfully laid the first undersea telegraph cable line across the Atlantic from Britain to Newfoundland, Canada. She later laid the cable from Egypt to India as well. She had become the most successful cable layer of the time. She was capable of holding 5000 galvanized tonnes of cable, which was the largest capacity of the time.
But as time goes by, better vessels are built and the Great Eastern was soon out of business by much more efficient cable layers, specifically built for the job.
Edward de Mattos saw some potential in the Great Eastern as a floating advertising board, but this too failed to turn any profit for the owner.
In October 1887 she was sold to scrappers at auction. During her dismantling a horrific discovery was made. Between the double hulls the scrappers found the remains of two bodies. It was assumed they were what was left of two shipyard workers mistakenly entombed when she was being built. One could pose the thought that this cursed the ship from any sort of lengthy success.
Yet, as large and ungainly as she was, the SS Great Eastern was not outsized for another 50 years.
Written by KE Heaton
With initial research/information by Captain Don Rose
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